Whatcha reading?

[Silent Majority]

It also smelt of stale piss.

[Marky Dread]

It also smelt of stale piss.

Stale pistol.

[Silent Majority]

39) The Trial - Franz Kafka. Audiobook. 1925. Josef K gets arrested on his thirtieth birthday for a crime that's never specified. It's brutal and spooky and witty. My read on it is that it's about buying into a system as much as you choose to. Had he ignored the ongoing trial, I think it would have gone away. A great read with nearly all of its individual scenes being unforgettable. I like how K is not a likable or identifiable protagonist - he's snobbish and self important and positively invites the treatment he receives.

[Marky Dread]

39) The Trial - Franz Kafka. Audiobook. 1925. Josef K gets arrested on his thirtieth birthday for a crime that's never specified. It's brutal and spooky and witty. My read on it is that it's about buying into a system as much as you choose to. Had he ignored the ongoing trial, I think it would have gone away. A great read with nearly all of its individual scenes being unforgettable. I like how K is not a likable or identifiable protagonist - he's snobbish and self important and positively invites the treatment he receives.

One I read when I was more earnest. I liked it and although influenced by Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" I preferred "The Trial". I didn't realise at the time of reading that the book was really unfinished. I agree that Josef K is an unlikable character and somewhat self righteous and an arrogant man.

[Marky Dread]

Another book I read around the same time as "The Trial" that affected me is the absurdist story "The myth of Sisyphus" by
Albert Camus.

A book which questions the very nature of man's quest for the searching of our own existance. Being happy by accepting our fate that this knowledge will forever allude us.

[Silent Majority]

39) The Trial - Franz Kafka. Audiobook. 1925. Josef K gets arrested on his thirtieth birthday for a crime that's never specified. It's brutal and spooky and witty. My read on it is that it's about buying into a system as much as you choose to. Had he ignored the ongoing trial, I think it would have gone away. A great read with nearly all of its individual scenes being unforgettable. I like how K is not a likable or identifiable protagonist - he's snobbish and self important and positively invites the treatment he receives.

One I read when I was more earnest. I liked it and although influenced by Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" I preferred "The Trial". I didn't realise at the time of reading that the book was really unfinished. I agree that Josef K is an unlikable character and somewhat self righteous and an arrogant man.

Shows how good Kafka was that it not being finished doesn't stop it from being a great read.

[Silent Majority]

Another book I read around the same time as "The Trial" that affected me is the absurdist story "The myth of Sisyphus" by
Albert Camus.

A book which questions the very nature of man's quest for the searching of our own existance. Being happy by accepting our fate that this knowledge will forever allude us.

Nice, will read. I liked the Outsider by Camus.

[Kory]

Another book I read around the same time as "The Trial" that affected me is the absurdist story "The myth of Sisyphus" by
Albert Camus.

A book which questions the very nature of man's quest for the searching of our own existance. Being happy by accepting our fate that this knowledge will forever allude us.

Nice, will read. I liked the Outsider by Camus.

This is a good time to read The Plague, by Camus as well.

[Silent Majority]

Another book I read around the same time as "The Trial" that affected me is the absurdist story "The myth of Sisyphus" by
Albert Camus.

A book which questions the very nature of man's quest for the searching of our own existance. Being happy by accepting our fate that this knowledge will forever allude us.

Nice, will read. I liked the Outsider by Camus.

This is a good time to read The Plague, by Camus as well.

Maybe later. My plague reading plans are to get to Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year sooner than later.

[Silent Majority]

41) Steering the Craft - Ursula Le Guin. Kindle. 1998. A nice, passionate writing manual. I ignored the exercises cos fuck you mum and dad I'm a grown up and I don't do homework. I probably got more from King's On Writing, in fact I know I did, but this sharpened some things I wanted to sharpen.

[Dr. Medulla]

41) Steering the Craft - Ursula Le Guin. Kindle. 1998. A nice, passionate writing manual. I ignored the exercises cos fuck you mum and dad I'm a grown up and I don't do homework. I probably got more from King's On Writing, in fact I know I did, but this sharpened some things I wanted to sharpen.

One of the things I got from King's book—that is, as a handy phrase—is to refer to clumsy prose that tries to be too clever and meaningful as "angry lesbian breasts."

[Silent Majority]

42) Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Malcolm Hulke. 1976. Kindle. A Doctor Who novelisation from the Target range. Crisply written and with no insanely small budget to hold the dinosaurs back, with some extra non - TV details. As with the majority of this line, a good way to spend a morning.

[Dr. Medulla]

Finished listening to Breakfast of Champions. Now I'm not so sure I have read it before—it was entirely unfamiliar. Vonnegut's playful prose makes it compelling, but it's fundamentally doodling. There's no narrative to speak of, but instead a collection of loosely connected vignettes on the nature of existence. That it was read by John Malkovich in an exceedingly dry manner added positively to experience.

One thing that interested me is whether, given our greater awareness about the use of racial slurs, people think this novel goes into the somewhat distasteful pile now. I'm thinking of past discussions about "Fairytale of New York" and Huckleberry Finn, and whether, accordingly, the liberal use of the n-word and "chinaman," whatever the self-conscious purpose, unappealing now.

Starting tomorrow:

Never heard of this story before (it happened in, I believe, 1981), but I have a side interest in 60s/70s anti-government radicalism, so I'm quite curious about this.

[Olaf]

Reminds me I've been meaning to revisit this book for some time. Ulrike Meinhof was a decent writer in her first life.

[Silent Majority]

43) Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges. Audiobook. 1962. A beautiful collection of short stories, clever, whimsical and fun. Loved this book and the way Borges writes, with several layers of reality. Not one dud in the pack, they're all equally stimulating.